LA mayor urges residents to ‘cancel everything’ as city could run out of hospital beds
Residents should stay home as much as possible as the city faces stark choices between “health and sickness, care and apathy, life and death,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti during a Wednesday news conference.
“It’s time to hunker down. It’s time to cancel everything. If it isn’t essential, don’t do it,” Garcetti said. “Don’t meet up with others outside your household, don’t host that gathering, don’t attend a gathering.”
The number of daily coronavirus infections in Los Angeles has tripled since early November. Hospitalizations have more than tripled and are at a new peak, Garcetti said.
“The public health condition of our city is as dire as it was in March in the earliest days of this pandemic,” he said.
Cases have been rising statewide as well. On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is considering “drastic action,” including reinstating a stay-at-home order, as projections show the surge of Covid-19 cases will cause the state’s ICU capacity to be overrun by Christmas Eve.
Newsom is planning to update the state’s response’s the pandemic in a noon (3 p.m. ET) press conference on Thursday.
All county residents are asked to stay home as much as possible and wear face masks when outside, even when exercising. The order reduces the maximum occupancy for essential businesses to 35%, and for nonessential businesses, personal care services and libraries to 20%.
Businesses operating outdoors, including fitness centers, zoos, botanical gardens and batting cages, are reduced to a maximum of 50% capacity.
Newsom said Monday that at the current rate of new infections in California, hospitalizations could double or triple during December if there are no major changes to stop the spread of the virus.
Patients needing intensive care will surpass capacity, according to state projections. Statewide, ICU capacity is projected to be 112% by mid-December while Northern California is projected to see 134% more ICU patients than beds by early December.
Specific restrictions were not unveiled, but Newsom made it clear most of the state will likely be subjected to stronger restrictions, including a reinstatement of the stay-at-home orders. He anticipates this will be applied to the 51 of California’s 58 counties that are classified in the most-restrictive reopening tier. This includes about 99% of the state’s population.
